Comcast SportsNet Northwest Rolls With The Derby

Comcast SportsNet Northwest is about to roll with a little roller derby

The regional sports network will highlight the sport from July 28 through Aug. 3 with vintage matches, replays of the famous 1972 Raquel Welch genre theatrical and an original special.

“Roller Derby Week” will showcase Roller Derby 101, a 60-minute Comcast SportsNet original special that takes viewers on a fast-paced, sharp-elbowed tour of the sport as explained by Portland’s own Rose City Rollers, a member of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. Roller Derby 101 gives an inside look at rules, history, terminology and “how to” sequences, and spotlights the lives of players and the culture surrounding the sport. The show also provides exclusive practice and event footage from the squad.

CSN Northwest's tribute also features more than a dozen of the best roller derby matches ever televised, including the toughest match-ups and biggest stars from the sport’s golden era of the 1960s and 1970s. Viewers will see the hits, tricks, suspenseful moments and fierce rivalries that captured a generation of fans, performed by characters, notably Charlie O’Connell (“the Babe Ruth of roller derby”), Joanie “the Blonde Amazon” Weston, Ann Calvello (“the original roller derby queen”), Ronnie Robinson and Mike Gammon.

Viewers will also have six chances to see Welch’s star turn in Kansas City Bomber in which she plays a member of the fictional Portland Loggers, where her K.C. Carr character learns first-hand about the rough-and-tumble sport, on and off the track.

“Roller derby is a wildly entertaining, cult-status and community-oriented sport that is enjoying a resurgence of popularity and growth,” said Comcast executive vice president of sports programming David Manougian in a statement. “Comcast SportsNet is excited to wheel viewers through roller derby’s golden past to its vibrant present and exciting future.”